NCR based restaurant and lifestyle portal Zomato, has launched a new ticketing solution with its New Year Event section, thereby making an entry into the online ticketing market and giving competition to websites like Ayojak or Buzzintown. The website launched its Event section a few months back and with this launch coinciding with New Year’s Eve, the company is generating a lot of buzz.

The website’s Events section is offering over 175, 000 tickets for various New Year parties across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune, with tickets being available at 30 venues across all 4 cities. That roughly translates to Rs. 40 crore of ticket inventory online, adding to the $3 million it raised from funding from InfoEdge recently.

Clearly, Zomato is taking the monetization via transaction approach, instead of relying only on ads or eCPM which is the case with a lot many lifestyle guides online. Zomato is also not charging any convenience fee unlike other websites and its relationship with lifestyle venues gives it an edge above the rest.

The challenge however, for Zomato is to build the backend for event organisors, something it must do well to carry on with this new feature. Similarly, what remains to be seen if Zomato will also go the Bookmyshow way after New Year, and whether they succeed in the attempt or not.